Vehicles operating in an autonomous mode (e.g., driverless) can relieve occupants, especially the driver, from some driving-related responsibilities. When operating in an autonomous mode, the vehicle can navigate to various locations using onboard sensors, allowing the vehicle to travel with minimal human interaction or in some cases without any passengers.
Motion planning and control are critical operations in autonomous driving. However, conventional motion planning operations estimate the difficulty of completing a given path mainly from its curvature and speed, without considering the differences in features for different types of vehicles. Same motion planning and control is applied to all types of vehicles, which may not be accurate and smooth under some circumstances.
In addition, steer control is a critical step in autonomous driving. When seeking a steer control accuracy, one usually requires a high steering rate (also referred to as a steering moving speed). However, a high steering rate may be dangerous to both the vehicle steering system and passengers, as well as overshoot during the operation.